Dear Mayor Carvalho, VETO the "TVR DUE PROCESS" Bill-a letter

To:
The Honorable Mayor Bernard Carvalho
From:
The Citizens of Kaua'i
Dear Mr. Mayor

We humbly implore you to veto the current TVR "Due Process" bill before you.

We realize that TVR's that wish to be "grandfathered" into an exempted class may or may not have been legal. There are various legal opinions on this. However, we also stand by the State Attorney General Opinions in which it has been stated that overnight uses shall not be allowed, and this applies to TVR use, which is not considered an accessory to a farm use, because there is no farming occurring on the properties.

We have heard numerous testimonies from TVR owners that they cannot farm their land, which is why they need to have expensive, palatial mansions costing up to 10,000 dollars a week, and in some cases up to 9,000 dollars a night, for rent on the property to "afford" to "support" their families.

We beg to differ, Sir. Local farmers who bought agricultural land, and who have been farming their lands did not put up palatial mansions on them, and are also struggling to support their families. They did not engage in this questionable activity and farmed their lands. It is highly unfair to favor one class of people over another on land zoned exactly the same. Therefore if you give an exemption to the TVR owner over the law abiding farmer what will that do to the character and dare we say it the very fiber and soul of this island?

Further, Mr. Mayor many politicians and public officials have stated over and over again about the importance of "sustainability", and the "promotion" of sustainable practices on our island. How can the practice of TVR accommodations on agricultural lands be seen as sustainable? There is numerous testimony on record from TVR owners, that they landscape and garden their property in one breath, but then the next statements are clearly to the effect that they cannot farm their land because it is unsustainable for food production. We find this to be highly suspect given the fact that Kauai has sustained food production for centuries virtually over its entire surface and the soil is easily amended. If you can grow landscape plants and grass you can also grow crops.

Further these TVR owners claim to be a major source of employing people. However, we submit to you Sir, that these jobs are menial, and unsustainable. No one working for these TVR owners will be able to afford land themselves due to the fact that the owners are driving up land prices on Kauai to astronomical proportions, even in the current down economy.

Further, Mr. Mayor the creation of Visitor Destinations, or VDA were created for just such types of commercial activity that caters to the tourism industry. These types of operations take directly away from Hotels, smaller lodging facilities and other commercial operations that are operating legally out of the VDA.

It is inconsistant, and frankly just bad policy to allow some to obey the law, and others to be exempt from it.
By allowing certain businesses to operate certain types of operations in certain areas where other operations catering to the exact same type of clientelle (IE Transient Visitors) to not have an equitable opportunity to secure those clients is unfair. It hurts all of those businesses and their employees, and shows favoritism.

Also, another point is the issue of the matter of lawsuits against the county should these operators not be allowed their "due process", however we submit to you that not only will operators sue if they are not accepted and allowed to continue to operate, but that there will be numerous counter suits filed.

The best course of action we believe, would be to veto this bill, and go to the state legislature for clarity and a bill that would be far more equitable to all concerned.  This current bill has had to be amended often, and has caused a large rift in our community. We beg you to reconsider picking up the pen that allows this, and refuse to sign this bill into law, then allow for a much better process and bill to proceed in the future.

Sincerely,
The citizens of Kaua'i.

GET THE PETITION HERE

Of TVR's, Farm Worker Housing, and other strange tales of Kaua'i

HERE IS THE ULTIMATE AGRICULTURAL LAND TVR-GOES FOR up to  TEN THOUSAND BUCKS A NIGHT. yep. Should these guys get a permit under the new TVR Bill? Evern if these people are the nicest people in the world, still this isn't right. Honestly. Come on, people. If you have this much money, then you have the money to do farming RIGHT. Big operation. Lots of empolyees, read: FARM WORKERS. NICE accomodations for your farm laborers. big contracts with major food companies. Hydroponics. If your landscape plants work well, then you can grow crops on your land. When they purchased this land, it was zoned ag. No excuses. Lease out the land. Something. Anything. Build yourself a nice home. OK, whatever. BUT NOT THIS!! THIS IS A PLANNED USE, ie they bought it with the intention of using it for THIS, and not ag. That's my problem with it. Plus, the name is absolute GIBBERISH. "Palama Huna Hale?" Huh? No such thing as huna. New age garbage. Palama? As in 

Palama ¹

Definition: A membrane extending between the toes of a bird, and uniting them more or less closely together. , which is NOT a Hawaiian word. Or is a Hindi word of some sort? Or is it named after the district of Palama in Honolulu?  get the picture yet? Gibberish.




And here it is: The luxury vacation rental on the north shore, that goes for 10,500 dollars a WEEK! Oh yeas, we NEED this on Kaua'i! Absolutely! This is the future of Kaua'i! This will make us all propepsrous. Hey don't be hatin cuz I can get a house for vacationin and you can't!! take a look at this abomination, here at:
 http://www.holomakani.com/holomakani, Yeah, here, take our land, and make 10,500 bucks a week off it. Enjoy. Yeah. Sure. Aloha Spirit, brah!

Here is their availability calender. They seem prety booked up. Lets count the money shall we? From now, until November, so far this year looks like they will be making 80 grand. Of course that doesn't include the first part of the year. I would say probably when the bookings are all down and all of the dough has been counted pretty cose to a cool million, since the potential is 40-50 thousand a month.

You might be surprised at what you see on this "availability calender".  Is this property on "ag land". Probably not. BUT is this a TVR outside of the VDA? Forget that. Is it just morally and ethically wrong? My ohana is from this area. They dont charge 10,500 dollars a week to live there. In fact many of my ohana regularly took in people with no place to stay and never charged them anything. Some of them grew up to be real estate agents in Hanalei. Think about that. The surrounding properties in this area actually are inhabited by some very poor and humble poeple, who would offer you the shirt of their backs, a hot meal and a spot on their counches. Just think about that for a second. And then you wonder just why some of us fight against these things. ALoha spirit my a$$


For my take on yesterdays meetings, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN HERE:




Well, it was a very long day, (and night) at the council chambers. If you ever want to know what going through a marathon ride of emotions, ranging from mental exhaustion, elation, fear, anger, indignation, happiness, hopefullness, forgiveness, and every other emotion there is just go to one of these meetings. You will be physically and mentally exhausted afterwards, trust me. I know I was. I wonder why I do this. I must be a glutton for punishment, a complete idiot, or completely insane, or all three. Frankly after waking up this morning with a Council Meeting Hangover, commonly known as a CMH, in council-speak, I think I am all three most definatly.

IT was really Kauai political theatre at its best. In its strange incubatorial world of nether reality we live encased in this bubble of a hub engrossed in influencing each other both on and off camera, a nd as usual, the audience area serves as the hub for the "shadow council", as we cut our deals amung ourselves, try to influence our opponents into common sense and out of their own opinions and self interests, and other strange alternative reality activities.

Our audience area is a strange sea of flotsom and jetsom, punctuated by a few leaky rowboats, and Cruise ships all maneuvering and banging heads in the same salty water of acidic verbal discourse thinly disguised by politeness while gritting your teeth from the inside.

Occasionally, councilmemebers attempot to swim into our turbulent waters and navigate through our lines of communication often, I am sure regretting their attempt to do so without water wings, or a good inflatable. We, for our part, are like Sirens, calling from the rocks to cajole our helpless victims into the water, to swim the dangerous currents that are the Citizen Gallery while the beleagered staff actually tries to keep everyone happy.

Another great sideshow is the Bull Pen of attornies which is always fun to watch if the rhetoric at the mike on either side of the bar gets a little boring. Whispering, postulating, getting up and down, getting their turns at the mike, which they relish almost as much as we do. We really can't complain, as we are all part of the same theatre group, and everyone has their parts down to a "t". We also do our share of getting up, and down, grabbing mysterious peices of paper scribble down as much as the attornies to, in a beautiful ballet of futility at times. But we have learned the ploys, the plays, the eye contacts, hand signals. When you have been in this Theatre of Fools long enough, you learn well.

It is always facinating as the camera gets turned off, and the breaks go through we exoplode, or implode into a cackling sea of hens where we really spark up the charm, or the ploys, or acts of sheer desperation. When the cameras go on again, at least 7 new alliances have been made, and 126 new deals have been struck. All within a blink of an eye. Its real Twighlight Zone stuff. Facinating to participate in.

So it was yesterday,the play played itself out, with calls for recusals, and the bringing up of infamous blog posts, and a litany of people claiming they can't farm and the only way to save themselves was by having TVR's. Then there were rthe assurances that the issue would be looked at sternly by the planning commission. Then there was the presentation that frankly pissed me the hell off. I do not beleive that anyone who has to so ostentatiousely show off there wealth does not have an emotional compensation problem.

The strangest thing to me was that we were all sort of in a dream trance there. Some internalized among each other. Those of us who were rowing the leaky little row boats in the seas of contention knew that we could not plead our case to change the outcome. It was a done deal. Frankly I was already into the "kill em with kindness " mode, and shook the hands of the ones who were seen as the biggest abusers and problems in the TVR's issue. Why? I wanted to see them as human beings. To look into their eyes.  To dfind out what makes them tick. To see how to work on these poeple. TO get them to see the other side.  Wel,l, I am sure its a pipe dream. But idiots and fools always hope for impossible thijngs. Maybe I don't have the spine of steel I like to think I have. Maybe I like to think that anyone can see reason somehow. THe onwe thing I did get to say is that how can you expect me, from my lowest rung to come here and support you on the highest rung when I myself have no support from you? WHere is my motivation! Is that selfigsh and heartless? Perhaps. But then remember this is a play, theatre, a dance.

ANd then the curtain falls. Reality sets in. There are repercussions to two bnills that passed yesterday. Tvr's on Ag lands. The opportunity for "fairness" and to "plead their case", and to have "due porocess". The problem is the people of Kauai do not feel like they have any of those things. The perception is that there is coprruption, back door deals, all sorts of things going on and that the poeple will always lose. That there is no hope. That it is over for Kauai.

Then, we got the farm worker housing bill. For me, that was a victory. Because it was caused by the housing crunch caused by the very same TVR situations. Those that claimed to be doing ag would now have to prove it. What better way, then to need farm worker housing. What better testament to the fact that all of these rich peoples mansions have caused homelessness, a lack of housing, and the very need to build housing for their help. Look at Kukuiula they have to have housing for their middle management earning a decent living wage because their is no housing. Look at the homeless issue. Neglecting to build housing for the minimum wage earners has caused an absolute nightmare.

What better situatioln for the massahs on the hill. Now they will need to build housing for their slaves as they work the feilds. People who will never be able to afford their own land or own their own house, or aI dare say every have their own TVR, because now there will be no more. Now, these people will have a monopoly on the TVR market. Is that fair? Due Process? Equitable? Becasue local farmers followed the law, weren't greedy, and  didnd't build themselves a ten bedroom mansioin and charge 50 thousand dollars for a one week stay there, we should somehow be sympathetic, empathetic, and helpful to them. Why?  Will they be gifting the little laborers any land? Permanent housing? Nope. Because the farm worker housing bill does not allow for that. All of the housing-is temporary. Therefore showing the confidence in the farmers. Which is pretty much zero. If the council had beleived these were really farmers? They would have made the housing poermanent. But it is temporary in anticipation of the inevitable flipping of properties, or the IAL, which I can assure you will be downgrading almost all of these lands out of ag, thus making all of this a huge moot point.

FOr me, as for nmmany others we now know that the IAL process will be the biggest loophole possible for these people. It will be willy nilly happily downgrading perfectly salvageable and usable farm lands, by making the ludicruous claim that only plus 4 and 3 land should be considered important. Lesser soils should be downgraded. Don't beleive me? Just wait, until after the next 20 meetings they have. The criteria and rules they are to go by will convuolute the process and confuse those on the board, as it is meant to do. That is the first step. NEver allow complete copmprehensioin of anything. If people do actually start to comprehend these bills, then it needs to be ammended, the rules changed, or something thrown in there to slow down the process. This is what I have learned from the theatre that is Council Chambers. Expect the same with the IAL bill. It will take our of ag those lands where a lot of those mansions are sitting, trust me. Forever. Even if those lands could have been ammended, and planted. Is this sustainable? Is this what is known aws food security? Is this what a beautiful and countrified Kauai looks like? Or am I a bitter old jealous fool, just a ranting old middle aged woman who has failed to be prosperous and should now be seen as the laughingstock pathetic idiot desperately grasping at anything to shoot poisonous venom at those who have done much better then I have? Why don't I bow down? Why don't I aquiesce with some grace and dignity? Why must I parade myself and make a fool of myself defending the rights of the impoverished and diesenfranchised? Why can't I just shut up and resist the urge to attend these meetings, and put in my worthless two cents, while other people fdar more important then me must wait there turn! Why, ideed. WHy indeed.

For the massahs on the hill, the problem has come home to roost and nest, and fester. Now lets see if we can separate the theatre and the reality and come to some pergatory of normalicy and some sense of fairness and justice. Is it or will it ever be possible on this little unique island of Kauai?

And while the homeless can't find a home, and the public housing residents live in fdear that even though they have followed all the rules and paid their rents they may be tossed out onto the street to house the homeless that are currently on the street becasue we have not cared about providing housing for those who need to work for the rich, and the rich and wealthy have won the due process to stay in their homes and continue their american dream, while we struggle to prevent a nightmare form happening, the world continues to turn and Kauai right along with it. Will we spin into each other, and see each other for what we are? Will we be able to look into each others eyes and make a theraputic break through?

I for one am willing to keep trying. I have not put down my armour yet. I wil continue to try. I still have hope.

Do You?

gotta go. Pumpkin crunch is ready.

Kaua'is TVR : Ag vs Vacation Rental "supplement". No Excuse for not being able to produce off the land.

Give me one acre of land, I could do a LOT of agriculture on it.

But then, ag lands do not go to people like me, who can actually farm, know what to plant and where and how to ammend the soil and make things grow.

It goes to rich greedy fake so called "farmers", who come here, don't know what the heck they are doing, fail, and then cry and moan that they HAVE to have a vacation rental, or they can not possibly make it!!

What a ridiculous, unfair farce.

The worst thing is when the council whines they don't know what agriculture is and they are trying to figure out how to define it. That's like saying they don't know how to eat, or walk, or stand upright, and they have to define it.

It reminds me of the ridiculous debates a few years ago about what constitutes an "environmentalist", regarding the seat on the planning commission that states there must be a representative from enviromental interests on the planning commission.

Its the same thing. Some people said, well I know which bin to put cardboard in, and I drop off my cardboard at the recycling center. Therefore, I have been active in the enviromental community and know enough to represent that seat on the commission." That was what some people were actually saying, I am not kidding you.

The same theory is now being applied to agriculture. "Well I have plants on my land, so I am a farmer. See all this grass?".

I just cannot tell you how totally p.o.'d that kind of very ignorant, and fake stupid "well I dont know I am innocent. Whats agriculture anyway? How do we define it? Lets ponder this until after the election. "

I will never forget, at the meeting I had a great conversation with one of the landowners, who actually turned out to be a really great couple.

I mentioned to the wife, that if they paid more attention to doing ag on their land they probably would not even need to supplement their income with the vacation rental, after finding out how much they charged for a room rental.

She agreed but said that the mortgage payments on the house were very high and that is why they needed to rent out rooms, but that if they did do more ag it probably would produce more.

Another issue that I heard, not from this couple whom I actually like, and think they really are pretty sincere poeple, I often here from these "farmers" that they can't sell their crops. Thats ridiculous. People are SCREAMING for Kauai produce.  When I mention this, then they say that they can't get a good enough price for it if the market is flooded with certain seasonals.

So I tell people you need to niche market. Do hierlooms. Look at other varieties of crops. Do people listen? Nope. Want to know why?: Its real simple. They will "token farm", and then delight in failing, so they can say see, the land can't produce we cant make it work. SO we need to change the zoning because this ag land is just no good for farming.

That is the most bogus argument there is in this modern agricultural era. There are tons of soil ammendments that are safe, like sunhemp, a natural soil conditioner. Two or in the worst cases three rounds of this crop and you can fix the most depleted soils. A round of liming afterwards, and there is just absolutely no excuse for not being able to get in a crop of anything. A good load of loam from the west side maybe, if you need to, and six inches or organic topsoil tilled in, and you are on your way to a highly productive peice of land. There is NO EXCUSE for not being able to bring in a crop. Especially if land has been fallow for awhile. Everyone knows fallow land is the best for ammending and rejuvination, and will be able to produce well if you take care of your spoils properly.

But all this is a waste of breath. These poeple will do the exact opposite to ensure they DON'T get a good crop or do well. Then they can whine, moan,  and complain. THey waste all of the ag lands, they trash them, they do everything wrong, and they are the ones that contribute to the degeneration of our soils and ag lands.

I would like an ordinance where we take the land away from farmers, and give it out to poeple like me who can actually farm. WHo know how to produce food, or to ranch and produce meats, cheeses, or who can grow herbs or medicinals, or who can produce traditional canoe plant crops, or florals that can be used for mass producing leis, such as vanda orchids, and plumerias.Ho0w about growong ipu gourds, and Kauai wauke, and producing real Hawaiian tapa again? how about lauhala groves, and a manyfacturing area, where we can produce lauhala weavinjg from right here on Kauai? How about ulu groves, and the selling of breadfgruit? More taro farming? how about hawaiian medicinal plant farms?  How about niche marketing, such as truffles, vineyards, and then wines produced right on kauai? Fruit tree groves, and then the production of jams and jellies from them? What about the numerous varieties of teas, and then the manufacture and packaging right here? What about the fruits which we need to export such as papayas, mangoes, bananas? How about edible gingers, and a host of other hierloom and niche marketing crops? This is what agriculture is.

The guy that said he couldnt grow an orange tree by the ocean, obviousely a mainland transplant does not understand that years ago, in the kalalau valley true farmers came here form the mainland, planted citrus in the kalalau valley, on the ocean, on the coast, with wind and rain, and saltwater, and were able to supply all of California with citrus, including oranges limes and lemons. When I hear this guy complaining he cant grow an orange tree, that just really insults the intelligence of Kauais people. since we know the history of citrus here. In particular the varieties of Ka'u oranges that are adapted to those conditions, the Hawaiian lemon s and limes, ect. So we know the guy is just totally incapable. HE should not have that land. Give it to a real farmer.